JESUS (/ˈdʒiːzəs/ _JEE-zuss_ ; Greek : Ἰησοῦς, translit.
_Iesous_; Hebrew : ישוע‎, translit. _Yēšū́aʿ _‎; c. 4 BC
– c. 30/33 AD), also referred to as JESUS OF NAZARETH or JESUS
CHRIST, was a Jewish preacher and religious leader who became the
central figure of
Christianity . Christians believe him to be the Son
of
God and the awaited
Messiah (Christ ) prophesied in the Old
Testament .

Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that
Jesus existed
historically , although the quest for the historical
Jesus has
produced little agreement on the historical reliability of the Gospels
and on how closely the biblical
Jesus reflects the historical
Jesus .
Jesus was a
GalileanJew who was baptized by
John the Baptist and
subsequently began his own ministry , preaching his message orally
and often being referred to as "rabbi ". He was arrested and tried by
the Jewish religious authorities, and turned over to the Roman
government, and was subsequently crucified on the order of Pontius
Pilate , the Roman prefect .
Jesus debated fellow
Jews on how to best
follow God, performed healings, taught in parables and gathered
followers. After his death, his followers believed he rose from the
dead , and the community they formed eventually became the Christian
Church .

His birth is celebrated annually on December 25 (or various dates in
January for some eastern churches) as a holiday known as
Christmas ,
his crucifixion is honored on
Good Friday , and his resurrection is
celebrated on
Easter . The widely used calendar era "AD ", from the
Latin _anno Domini_ ("in the year of the Lord"), and the alternative
"CE ", are based on the approximate birth date of Jesus.

Christian doctrines include the beliefs that
Jesus was conceived by
the
Holy Spirit , was born of a virgin named Mary , performed miracles
, founded the Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve
atonement , rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven , whence he
will return . Most Christians believe
Jesus enables humans to be
reconciled to God. The
Nicene Creed asserts that
Jesus will judge the
living and the dead either before or after their bodily resurrection
, an event tied to the
Second Coming of
Jesus in Christian
eschatology . The great majority of Christians worship
Jesus as the
incarnation of
God the Son , the second of three persons of a Divine
Trinity . A minority of
Christian denominations reject Trinitarianism
, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.

In
Islam ,
Jesus (commonly transliterated as _Isa_ ) is considered
one of
God 's important prophets and the Messiah. Muslims believe
Jesus was a bringer of scripture and was born of a virgin but was not
the Son of God. The
Quran states that
Jesus himself never claimed
divinity. To most Muslims,
Jesus was not crucified but was physically
raised into Heaven by God.

Judaism rejects the belief that
Jesus was the awaited Messiah,
arguing that he did not fulfill Messianic prophecies and asserting
that his resurrection is a
Christian legend .

A typical
Jew in Jesus' time had only one name , sometimes
supplemented with the father\'s name or the individual's hometown.
Thus, in the New Testament,
Jesus is commonly referred to as "
Jesus of
Nazareth" (e.g.,
Mark 10 :47). Jesus' neighbors in
Nazareth refer to
him as "the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses
and Judas and Simon" (
Mark 6 :3), "the carpenter's son" (Matthew 13
:55), or "Joseph's son" (
Luke 4 :22). In John, the disciple Philip
refers to him as "
Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth" (
John 1 :45).

The name _Jesus_ is derived from the Latin _Iesus_, a transliteration
of the Greek Ἰησοῦς (_Iesous_). The Greek form is a rendering
of the Hebrew ישוע‎ (_
Yeshua _), a variant of the earlier name
יהושע‎ (_Yehoshua _), in English "Joshua". The name _Yeshua_
appears to have been in use in
Judea at the time of the birth of
Jesus. The 1st century works of historian Flavius
Josephus , who
wrote in
Koine Greek , the same language as that of the New Testament,
refer to at least twenty different people with the name
Jesus (i.e.
Ἰησοῦς). The etymology of Jesus' name in the context of the
New Testament is generally given as "Yahweh is salvation".

Since early Christianity, Christians have commonly referred to Jesus
as "
Jesus Christ". The word _Christ_ is derived from the Greek
Χριστός (_Christos_), which is a translation of the Hebrew
משיח (_Meshiakh_), meaning the "anointed " and usually
transliterated into English as "
Messiah ". Christians designate
Jesus as Christ because they believe he is the Messiah, whose arrival
is prophesied in the
Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. In postbiblical
usage, _Christ_ became viewed as a name—one part of "Jesus
Christ"—but originally it was a title. The term "
Christian "
(meaning a follower of Christ) has been in use since the 1st century.

The four canonical gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ) are the
only substantial sources for the life and message of Jesus. Other
parts of the New Testament, such as the
Pauline epistles , written
decades before the gospels, also include references to key episodes in
his life, such as the
Last Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23. Acts of
the
Apostles (Acts 10:37–38 and Acts 19) refers to the early
ministry of
Jesus and its anticipation by John the Baptist. Acts
1:1–11 says more about the Ascension of
Jesus (also mentioned in 1
Timothy 3:16) than the canonical gospels do.

Some early
Christian groups had separate descriptions of the life and
teachings of
Jesus that are not included in the New Testament. These
include the
Gospels of Thomas , Peter , and Judas , the Apocryphon of
James , and many other apocryphal writings . Most scholars conclude
that these are written much later and are less reliable accounts than
the canonical gospels.

The canonical gospels are four accounts, each written by a different
author. The authors of the gospels are all anonymous, attributed by
tradition to the four evangelists , each with close ties to Jesus:
Mark by
John Mark , an associate of Peter; Matthew by one of Jesus'
disciples; Luke by a companion of Paul mentioned in a few epistles;
and John by another of Jesus' disciples, the "beloved disciple".

According to the
Marcan priority , the first to be written was the
Gospel of Mark (written AD 60–75), followed by the
Gospel of Matthew
(AD 65–85), the
Gospel of Luke (AD 65–95), and the
Gospel of John
(AD 75–100). Furthermore, most scholars agree that the authors of
Matthew and Luke used Mark as a source when writing their gospels.
Matthew and Luke also share some content not found in Mark. To explain
this, many scholars believe that in addition to Mark, another source
(commonly called the "
Q source ") was used by the two authors.

Three of them, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are known as the Synoptic
Gospels, from the Greek σύν (_syn_ "together") and ὄψις
(_opsis_ "view"). They are similar in content, narrative
arrangement, language and paragraph structure. Scholars generally
agree that it is impossible to find any direct literary relationship
between the Synoptic
Gospels and the
Gospel of John. While the flow
of some events (such as Jesus' baptism, transfiguration , crucifixion
and interactions with the apostles ) are shared among the Synoptic
Gospels, incidents such as the transfiguration do not appear in John,
which also differs on other matters, such as the Cleansing of the
Temple .

JESUS IN THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS
JESUS IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

Begins with Jesus' baptism or birth to a virgin.
Begins with creation, with no birth story.

Teaches in parables and aphorisms.
Teaches in long, involved discourses.

Teaches primarily about the Kingdom of God, little about himself.
Teaches primarily and extensively about himself.

Speaks up for the poor and oppressed.
Says little to nothing about the poor or oppressed.

Exorcises demons.
Does not exorcise demons.

Public ministry lasts one year.
Public ministry lasts three years.

Cleansing the Temple occurs late.
Cleansing the Temple is early.

Jesus ushers in a new covenant with a last supper.
Jesus washes the disciples' feet.

The Synoptics emphasize different aspects of Jesus. In Mark,
Jesus is
the Son of
God whose mighty works demonstrate the presence of God\'s
Kingdom . He is a tireless wonder worker, the servant of both
God and
man. This short gospel records few of Jesus' words or teachings. The
Gospel of Matthew emphasizes that
Jesus is the fulfillment of God's
will as revealed in the Old Testament, and he is the Lord of the
Church. He is the "Son of
David ", a "king", and the Messiah. Luke
presents
Jesus as the divine-human savior who shows compassion to the
needy. He is the friend of sinners and outcasts, come to seek and
save the lost. This gospel includes Jesus' most beloved parables,
such as the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son.

The prologue to the
Gospel of John identifies
Jesus as an incarnation
of the divine Word (Logos ). As the Word,
Jesus was eternally present
with God, active in all creation, and the source of humanity's moral
and spiritual nature.
Jesus is not only greater than any past human
prophet but greater than any prophet could be. He not only speaks
God's Word; he is God's Word. In the
Gospel of John,
Jesus reveals
his divine role publicly. Here he is the Bread of Life, the Light of
the World, the True Vine and more.

Not everything contained in the
New Testament gospels is considered
to be historically reliable. Views range from their being inerrant
descriptions of the life of
Jesus to their providing little
historical information about his life beyond the basics. According
to a broad scholarly consensus, the Synoptic Gospels, and not John,
are the most reliable sources of information about Jesus.

One important aspect of the study of the gospels is the literary
genre under which they fall. Genre "is a key convention guiding both
the composition and the interpretation of writings". Whether the
gospel authors set out to write novels, myths, histories, or
biographies has a tremendous impact on how they ought to be
interpreted. Some recent studies suggest that the genre of the gospels
ought to be situated within the realm of ancient biography .
Although not without critics, the position that the gospels are a
type of ancient biography is the consensus among scholars today.

In general, the authors of the
New Testament showed little interest
in an absolute chronology of
Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of
his life with the secular history of the age. As stated in John
21:25, the gospels do not claim to provide an exhaustive list of the
events in the life of Jesus. The accounts were primarily written as
theological documents in the context of early
Christianity , with
timelines as a secondary consideration. In this respect, it is
noteworthy that the
Gospels devote about one third of their text to
the last week of the life of
Jesus in
Jerusalem , referred to as the
Passion . Although the gospels do not provide enough details to
satisfy the demands of modern historians regarding exact dates, it is
possible to draw from them a general picture of the life story of
Jesus.

Jesus was Jewish, born by Mary, wife of Joseph (Matthew 1, Luke 2).
Matthew and Luke each offer a genealogy of
Jesus . Matthew traces
Jesus' ancestry to
Abraham through
David . Luke traces Jesus'
ancestry through
Adam to God. The lists are identical between Abraham
and David, but differ radically from that point. _ Adoration of
the Shepherds_ by
Gerard van Honthorst , 1622

Matthew and Luke each describe Jesus' nativity (or birth), especially
that
Jesus was born by a virgin Mary in
Bethlehem in fulfillment of
prophecy. Luke's account emphasizes events before the birth of Jesus
and centers on Mary, while Matthew's mostly covers those after the
birth and centers on Joseph. Both accounts state that
Jesus was
born to Joseph and Mary, his betrothed , in Bethlehem, and both
support the doctrine of the virgin birth of
Jesus , according to which
Jesus was miraculously conceived by the
Holy Spirit in Mary's womb
when she was still a virgin.

In Matthew, Joseph is troubled because Mary, his betrothed, is
pregnant (Matthew 1:19–20), but in the first of Joseph\'s three
dreams an angel assures him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife,
because her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In Matthew
2:1–12, wise men or
Magi from the East bring gifts to the young
Jesus as the King of the
Jews .
Herod the Great hears of Jesus' birth
and, wanting him killed, orders the murders of male infants in
Bethlehem. But an angel warns Joseph in his second dream, and the
family flees to Egypt —later to return and settle in
Nazareth .

In Luke 1:31–38, Mary learns from the angel
Gabriel that she will
conceive and bear a child called
Jesus through the action of the Holy
Spirit. When Mary is due to give birth, she and Joseph travel from
Nazareth to Joseph's ancestral home in
Bethlehem to register in the
census ordered by Caesar
Augustus . While there Mary gives birth to
Jesus, and as they have found no room in the inn, she places the
newborn in a manger (Luke 2:1–7). An angel announces the birth to
some shepherds , who go to
Bethlehem to see Jesus, and subsequently
spread the news abroad (Luke 2:8-20). After the presentation of Jesus
at the Temple , Joseph, Mary and
Jesus return to Nazareth.

Jesus' childhood home is identified in the gospels of Luke and
Matthew as the town of
Nazareth in
Galilee , where he lived with his
family. Although Joseph appears in descriptions of Jesus' childhood,
no mention is made of him thereafter. His other family members—his
mother, Mary, his brothers James ,
Joses (or Joseph) , Judas and Simon
and his unnamed sisters—are mentioned in the gospels and other
sources.

The
Gospel of Mark reports that
Jesus comes into conflict with his
neighbors and family. Jesus' mother and brothers come to get him
(Mark 3:31–35) because people are saying that he is crazy (Mark
3:21).
Jesus responds that his followers are his true family. In John,
Mary follows
Jesus to his crucifixion, and he expresses concern over
her well-being (John 19:25–27).

Jesus is called a τέκτων (_tektōn _) in Mark 6:3,
traditionally understood as carpenter but could cover makers of
objects in various materials, including builders. The gospels
indicate that
Jesus could read, paraphrase, and debate scripture, but
this does not necessarily mean that he received formal scribal
training.

When
Jesus is presented in the temple per Jewish Law, a man named
Simeon says to Mary and Joseph that
Jesus "shall stand as a sign of
contradiction, while a sword will pierce your own soul. Then the
secret thoughts of many will come to light" (Luke 2:28–35). When
Jesus goes missing, they find him in the temple sitting among the
teachers, listening to them and asking questions, and the people are
amazed at his understanding and answers; Mary scolds
Jesus for going
missing, to which
Jesus replies that he must "be in his father's
house" (Luke 2:41–52).

The Synoptic accounts of Jesus' baptism are all preceded by
information about
John the Baptist . They show John preaching
penance and repentance for the remission of sins and encouraging the
giving of alms to the poor (Luke 3:11) as he baptizes people in the
area of the
Jordan River around
Perea and foretells (Luke 3:16) the
arrival of someone "more powerful" than he. Later,
Jesus identifies
John as "the
Elijah who was to come" (Matthew 11:14, Mark 9:13–14),
the prophet who was expected to arrive before the "great and terrible
day of the Lord" (
Malachi 4:5). Likewise, Luke says that John had the
spirit and power of
Elijah (Luke 1:17).

In Mark, John baptizes Jesus, and as he comes out of the water he
sees the
Holy Spirit descending to him like a dove and he hears a
voice from heaven declaring him to be God's Son (Mark 1:9-11). This is
one of two events described in the gospels where a voice from Heaven
calls
Jesus "Son", the other being the Transfiguration. The spirit
then drives him into the wilderness where he is tempted by
Satan (Mark
1:12–13).
Jesus then begins his ministry after John's arrest (Mark
1:14). Jesus' baptism in Matthew is similar. Here, before Jesus'
baptism, John protests, saying, "I need to be baptized by you"
(Matthew 3:14).
Jesus instructs him to carry on with the baptism "to
fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). Matthew also details the
three temptations that
Satan offers
Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew
4:3–11). In Luke, the
Holy Spirit descends as a dove after everyone
has been baptized and
Jesus is praying (Luke 3:21-22). John implicitly
recognizes
Jesus from prison after sending his followers to ask about
him Luke 7:18–23). Jesus' baptism and temptation serve as
preparation for his public ministry.

The
Gospel of John leaves out Jesus' baptism and temptation. Here,
John the Baptist testifies that he saw the Spirit descend on Jesus
John 1:32). John publicly proclaims
Jesus as the sacrificial Lamb of
God , and some of John's followers become disciples of Jesus. In this
Gospel, John denies that he is
Elijah John 1:21). Before John is
imprisoned,
Jesus leads his followers to baptize disciples as well
(John 3:22–24), and they baptize more people than John (John 4:1).

The Synoptics depict two distinct geographical settings in Jesus'
ministry. The first takes place north of
Judea , in
Galilee , where
Jesus conducts a successful ministry; and the second shows Jesus
rejected and killed when he travels to
Jerusalem . Often referred to
as "rabbi ",
Jesus preaches his message orally. Notably, Jesus
forbids those who recognize him as the
Messiah to speak of it,
including people he heals and demons he exorcises (see Messianic
Secret ).

John depicts Jesus' ministry as largely taking place in and around
Jerusalem, rather than in Galilee; and Jesus' divine identity is
openly proclaimed and immediately recognized.

Scholars divide the ministry of
Jesus into several stages. The
Galilean ministry begins when
Jesus returns to
Galilee from the
Judaean Desert after rebuffing the temptation of
Satan . Jesus
preaches around Galilee, and in Matthew 4:18–20, his first disciples
, who will eventually form the core of the early Church, encounter him
and begin to travel with him. This period includes the
Sermon on the
Mount , one of Jesus' major discourses, as well as the calming of
the storm , the feeding of the 5,000 , walking on water and a number
of other miracles and parables . It ends with the Confession of Peter
and the Transfiguration.

As
Jesus travels towards Jerusalem, in the Perean ministry, he
returns to the area where he was baptized, about a third of the way
down from the Sea of
Galilee along the
Jordan River (John 10:40–42).
The final ministry in
Jerusalem begins with Jesus' triumphal entry
into the city on
Palm Sunday . In the Synoptic Gospels, during that
week
Jesus drives the money changers from the
Second Temple and Judas
bargains to betray him. This period culminates in the
Last Supper and
the
Farewell Discourse .

Disciples And Followers

Near the beginning of his ministry,
Jesus appoints twelve apostles .
In Matthew and Mark, despite
Jesus only briefly requesting that they
join him, Jesus' first four apostles, who were fishermen, are
described as immediately consenting, and abandoning their nets and
boats to do so (Matthew 4:18–22, Mark 1:16–20). In John, Jesus'
first two apostles were disciples of John the Baptist. The Baptist
sees
Jesus and calls him the
Lamb of God ; the two hear this and
follow Jesus. In addition to the Twelve Apostles, the opening of the
passage of the
Sermon on the Plain identifies a much larger group of
people as disciples (Luke 6:17). Also, in Luke 10:1–16
Jesus sends
seventy or seventy-two of his followers in pairs to prepare towns for
his prospective visit. They are instructed to accept hospitality, heal
the sick and spread the word that the Kingdom of
God is coming.

In Mark, the disciples are notably obtuse. They fail to understand
Jesus' miracles (Mark 4:35–41, Mark 6:52), his parables (Mark 4:13),
or what "rising from the dead" would mean (Mark 9:9–10). When Jesus
is later arrested, they desert him.

In the Synoptics,
Jesus teaches extensively, often in parables ,
about the Kingdom of
God (or, in Matthew, the Kingdom of Heaven ). The
Kingdom is described as both imminent (Mark 1:15) and already present
in the ministry of
Jesus (Luke 17:21).
Jesus promises inclusion in the
Kingdom for those who accept his message (Mark 10:13–27). Jesus
talks of the "Son of Man ," an apocalyptic figure who would come to
gather the chosen.

Jesus calls people to repent their sins and to devote themselves
completely to God.
Jesus tells his followers to adhere to Jewish law
, although he is perceived by some to have broken the law himself, for
example regarding the
Sabbath . When asked what the greatest
commandment is,
Jesus replies: "You shall love the Lord your
God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind ... And
a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself"
(Matthew 22:37–39). Other ethical teachings of
Jesus include loving
your enemies , refraining from hatred and lust, turning the other
cheek , and forgiving people who have sinned against you (Matthew
5–7 ).

John's
Gospel presents the teachings of
Jesus not merely as his own
preaching, but as divine revelation . John the Baptist, for example,
states in John 3:34: "He whom
God has sent speaks the words of God,
for he gives the Spirit without measure." In John 7:16
Jesus says, "My
teaching is not mine but his who sent me." He asserts the same thing
in John 14:10: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the
Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own;
but the Father who dwells in me does his works." Jesus
cleansing a leper , medieval mosaic from the
Monreale Cathedral

Approximately thirty parables form about one third of Jesus' recorded
teachings. The parables appear within longer sermons and at other
places in the narrative. They often contain symbolism, and usually
relate the physical world to the spiritual . Common themes in these
tales include the kindness and generosity of
God and the perils of
transgression. Some of his parables, such as the Prodigal Son (Luke
15:11–32), are relatively simple, while others, such as the Growing
Seed (Mark 4:26–29), are sophisticated, profound and abstruse. When
asked by his disciples about why he speaks in parables to the people,
Jesus replies that the chosen disciples have been given to "know the
secrets of the kingdom of heaven", unlike the rest of their people,
"For the one who has will be given more and he will have in abundance.
But the one who does not have will be deprived even more.", going on
to say that the majority of their generation have grown "dull hearts"
and thus are unable to understand (Matthew 13:10–17).

In the gospel accounts,
Jesus devotes a large portion of his ministry
performing miracles , especially healings. The miracles can be
classified into two main categories: healing miracles and nature
miracles. The healing miracles include cures for physical ailments,
exorcisms , and resurrections of the dead . The nature miracles
show Jesus' power over nature, and include turning water into wine ,
walking on water , and calming a storm, among others.
Jesus states
that his miracles are from a divine source. When Jesus' opponents
suddenly accuse him of performing exorcisms by the power of Beelzebul
, the prince of demons,
Jesus counters that he performs them by the
"Spirit of God" (Matthew 12:28) or "finger of God", arguing that all
logic suggests that
Satan would not let his demons assist the Children
of
God because it would divide Satan's house and bring his kingdom to
desolation; furthermore, he asks his opponents that if he exorcises by
Beel\'zebub , "by whom do your sons cast them out?"(Luke 11:20). In
Matthew 12:31–32, he goes on to say that while all manner of sin,
"even insults against God" or "insults against the son of man", shall
be forgiven, whoever insults goodness (or "The
Holy Spirit ") shall
never be forgiven; he/she carries the guilt of his/her sin forever.

In John, Jesus' miracles are described as "signs", performed to prove
his mission and divinity. However, in the Synoptics, when asked by
some teachers of the Law and some
Pharisees to give miraculous signs
to prove his authority,
Jesus refuses, saying that no sign shall come
to corrupt and evil people except the sign of the prophet
Jonah .
Also, in the Synoptic Gospels, the crowds regularly respond to Jesus'
miracles with awe and press on him to heal their sick. In John's
Gospel,
Jesus is presented as unpressured by the crowds, who often
respond to his miracles with trust and faith. One characteristic
shared among all miracles of
Jesus in the gospel accounts is that he
performed them freely and never requested or accepted any form of
payment.
The gospel episodes that include descriptions of the
miracles of
Jesus also often include teachings, and the miracles
themselves involve an element of teaching. Many of the miracles
teach the importance of faith. In the cleansing of ten lepers and the
raising of Jairus\' daughter , for instance, the beneficiaries are
told that their healing was due to their faith.

At about the middle of each of the three Synoptic Gospels, two
related episodes mark a turning point in the narrative: the Confession
of Peter and the Transfiguration of Jesus. These events mark the
beginnings of the gradual disclosure of the identity of
Jesus to his
disciples and his prediction of his own suffering and death. These
two events are not mentioned in the
Gospel of John.

In his Confession, Peter tells Jesus, "You are the Messiah, the Son
of the living God."
Jesus affirms that Peter's confession is
divinely revealed truth.

In the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1–9, Mark 9:2–8, and Luke
9:28–36),
Jesus takes Peter and two other apostles up an unnamed
mountain, where "he was transfigured before them, and his face shone
like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white." A bright cloud
appears around them, and a voice from the cloud says, "This is my Son,
the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him" (Matthew
17:1–9). In
2 Peter 1:16–18, Peter himself affirms that he
witnessed Jesus' Transfiguration, stating that the apostolic tradition
is based on eyewitness testimony .

The description of the last week of the life of
Jesus (often called
Passion Week ) occupies about one third of the narrative in the
canonical gospels, starting with Jesus' triumphal entry into
Jerusalem and ending with his Crucifixion.

In the Synoptics, the last week in
Jerusalem is the conclusion of the
journey through
Perea and
Judea that
Jesus began in Galilee. Jesus
rides a young donkey into Jerusalem, reflecting the tale of the
Messiah\'s Donkey , an oracle from the
Book of Zechariah in which the
Jews' humble king enters
Jerusalem this way (Zechariah 9:9). People
along the way lay cloaks and small branches of trees (known as palm
fronds) in front of him and sing part of Psalms 118:25–26.

Jesus next expels the money changers from the
Second Temple ,
accusing them of turning it into a den of thieves through their
commercial activities.
Jesus then prophesies about the coming
destruction, including false prophets, wars, earthquakes, celestial
disorders, persecution of the faithful, the appearance of an
"abomination of desolation," and unendurable tribulations (Mark
13:1–23). The mysterious "Son of Man," he says, will dispatch angels
to gather the faithful from all parts of the earth (Mark 13:24–27).
Jesus warns that these wonders will occur in the lifetimes of the
hearers (Mark 13:28-32). In John, the
Cleansing of the Temple occurs
at the beginning of Jesus' ministry instead of at the end (John
2:13–16).

Jesus comes into conflict with the Jewish elders, such as when they
question his authority and when he criticizes them and calls them
hypocrites .
Judas Iscariot , one of the twelve apostles , secretly
strikes a bargain with the Jewish elders, agreeing to betray
Jesus to
them for 30 silver coins .

The
Gospel of John recounts of two other feasts in which
Jesus taught
in
Jerusalem before the
Passion Week (John 7:1–10:42). In Bethany ,
a village near Jerusalem,
Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead . This
potent sign increases the tension with authorities, who conspire to
kill him (John 11).
Mary of Bethany anoints Jesus' feet,
foreshadowing his entombment.
Jesus then makes his Messianic entry
into Jerusalem. The cheering crowds greeting
Jesus as he enters
Jerusalem add to the animosity between him and the establishment. In
John,
Jesus has already cleansed the
Second Temple during an earlier
Passover visit to Jerusalem. John next recounts Jesus' Last Supper
with his disciples.

The
Last Supper is the final meal that
Jesus shares with his 12
apostles in
Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The
Last Supper is
mentioned in all four canonical gospels; Paul's First
Epistle to the
Corinthians (11:23–26) also refers to it. During the meal, Jesus
predicts that one of his apostles will betray him. Despite each
Apostle's assertion that he would not betray him,
Jesus reiterates
that the betrayer would be one of those present. Matthew 26:23–25
and John 13:26–27 specifically identify Judas as the traitor.

In the Synoptics,
Jesus takes bread, breaks it, and gives it to the
disciples, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you". He then
has them all drink from a cup, saying, "This cup that is poured out
for you is the new covenant in my blood" (Luke 22:19–20). The
Christian sacrament or ordinance of the
Eucharist is based on these
events. Although the
Gospel of John does not include a description of
the bread-and-wine ritual during the Last Supper, most scholars agree
that John 6:22–59 (the
Bread of Life Discourse ) has a eucharistic
character and resonates with the institution narratives in the
Synoptic
Gospels and in the Pauline writings on the Last Supper.

In all four gospels,
Jesus predicts that Peter will deny knowledge of
him three times before the rooster crows the next morning. In Luke
and John, the prediction is made during the Supper (Luke 22:34, John
22:34). In Matthew and Mark, the prediction is made after the Supper;
Jesus also predicts that all his disciples will desert him (Matthew
26:31–34, Mark 14:27–30). The
Gospel of John provides the only
account of
Jesus washing his disciples\' feet after the meal. John
also includes a long sermon by Jesus, preparing his disciples (now
without Judas) for his departure. Chapters 14–17 of the
Gospel of
John are known as the
Farewell Discourse and are a significant source
of Christological content.

After the Last Supper,
Jesus takes a walk to pray, and then Judas and
the authorities come and arrest him.

* In Mark, they go to the garden of
Gethsemane , where
Jesus prays
to be spared his coming ordeal. His disciples fall asleep while they
should be watching (Mark 37–41). Then Judas comes with an armed mob,
sent by the chief priests, scribes and elders. He kisses
Jesus to
identify him to the crowd, which then arrests
Jesus . In an attempt
to stop them, one of Jesus' disciples uses a sword to cut off the ear
of a man in the crowd. After Jesus' arrest, his disciples go into
hiding, and Peter, when questioned, thrice denies knowing Jesus.
After the third denial, he hears the rooster crow and recalls the
prediction as
Jesus turns to look at him. Peter then weeps bitterly.
* In Matthew,
Jesus criticizes the disciple's attack with the sword,
enjoining his disciples not to resist his arrest. He says, "All who
take the sword will perish by the sword " (Matthew 26:52).
* In Luke,
Jesus goes to the
Mount of Olives to pray, and Jesus
miraculously heals the ear that a disciple severed (Luke 22:51).
* In John,
Jesus does not pray to be spared his crucifixion, as the
gospel portrays him as scarcely touched by such human weakness. The
people who arrest him are soldiers and Jewish officers (John 18:3).
Instead of being betrayed by a kiss,
Jesus proclaims his identity, and
when he does, the soldiers and officers fall to the ground (John
18:4–7).
The gospel identifies Peter as the disciple who used the
sword, and
Jesus rebukes him for it (John 18:10–11).

After his arrest,
Jesus is taken to the
Sanhedrin , a Jewish judicial
body.
The gospel accounts differ on the details of the trials. In
Matthew 26:57, Mark 14:53 and Luke 22:54,
Jesus is taken to the house
of the high priest,
Caiaphas , where he is mocked and beaten that
night. Early the next morning, the chief priests and scribes lead
Jesus away into their council. John 18:12–14 states that
Jesus is
first taken to
Annas , Caiaphas' father-in-law, and then to the high
priest. _ Ecce homo!_
Antonio Ciseri 's 1871 depiction of
Pontius Pilate presenting
Jesus to the public

During the trials
Jesus speaks very little, mounts no defense, and
gives very infrequent and indirect answers to the priests' questions,
prompting an officer to slap him. In Matthew 26:62 Jesus'
unresponsiveness leads
Caiaphas to ask him, "Have you no answer?"
In Mark 14:61 the high priest then asks Jesus, "Are you the Messiah,
the Son of the Blessed One?"
Jesus replies, "I am", and then predicts
the coming of the Son of Man . This provokes
Caiaphas to tear his own
robe in anger and to accuse
Jesus of blasphemy . In Matthew and Luke,
Jesus' answer is more ambiguous: in Matthew 26:64 he responds, "You
have said so", and in Luke 22:70 he says, "You say that I am".

They take
Jesus to Pilate\'s Court , but
Pontius Pilate , the Prefect
of Judaea , proves extremely reluctant to condemn Jesus; according to
Robert W. Funk , it is the Jewish elders who are to blame for Jesus'
crucifixion.
Augustine of Hippo says that Pilate was not free from
blame, since he exercised his power to execute Jesus. The Jewish
elders ask the
Roman governorPontius Pilate to judge and condemn
Jesus, accusing him of claiming to be the King of the Jews. The use
of the word "king" is central to the discussion between
Jesus and
Pilate. In John 18:36
Jesus states, "My kingdom is not from this
world", but he does not unequivocally deny being the King of the Jews.
In Luke 23:7–15 Pilate realizes that
Jesus is a Galilean, and thus
comes under the jurisdiction of
Herod Antipas , the Tetrarch of
Galilee and Perea. Pilate sends
Jesus to Herod to be tried, but
Jesus says almost nothing in response to Herod's questions. Herod and
his soldiers mock Jesus, put an expensive robe on him to make him look
like a king, and return him to Pilate, who then calls together the
Jewish elders and announces that he has "not found this man guilty".

Observing a
Passover custom of the time, Pilate allows one prisoner
chosen by the crowd to be released. He gives the people a choice
between
Jesus and a murderer called
Barabbas . Persuaded by the elders
(Matthew 27:20), the mob chooses to release
Barabbas and crucify
Jesus. Pilate writes a sign in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek that reads
"
Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews" (abbreviated as
INRI in
depictions) to be affixed to Jesus' cross (John 19:19–20), then
scourges
Jesus and sends him to be crucified. The soldiers place a
Crown of Thorns on Jesus' head and ridicule him as the King of the
Jews. They beat and taunt him before taking him to
Calvary , also
called Golgotha, for crucifixion.

Jesus' crucifixion is described in all four canonical gospels. After
the trials,
Jesus is led to
Calvary carrying his cross ; the route
traditionally thought to have been taken is known as the Via Dolorosa
. The three Synoptic
Gospels indicate that
Simon of Cyrene assists
him, having been compelled by the Romans to do so. In Luke
23:27–28
Jesus tells the women in the multitude of people following
him not to weep for him but for themselves and their children. At
Calvary,
Jesus is offered a concoction usually offered as a painkiller
. According to Matthew and Mark, he refuses it.

The soldiers then crucify
Jesus and cast lots for his clothes. Above
Jesus' head on the cross is Pilate's inscription, "
Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews"; soldiers and passersby mock him about it. Jesus
is crucified between two convicted thieves, and according to Luke (but
not Mark) one of them rebukes Jesus, while the other defends him.
The Roman soldiers break the two thieves' legs (a procedure designed
to hasten death in a crucifixion), but they do not break those of
Jesus, as he is already dead. In John 19:34, one soldier pierces
Jesus' side with a lance , and blood and water flow out. In Matthew
27:51–54, when
Jesus dies, the heavy curtain at the Temple is torn
and an earthquake breaks open tombs . Terrified by the events, a Roman
centurion states that
Jesus was the Son of
God .

On the same day,
Joseph of Arimathea , with Pilate's permission and
with
Nicodemus ' help, removes Jesus\' body from the cross , wraps him
in a clean cloth, and buries him in his new rock-hewn tomb . In
Matthew 27:62–66, on the following day the chief Jewish priests ask
Pilate for the tomb to be secured, and with Pilate's permission the
priests place seals on the large stone covering the entrance and post
a guard.

In all four gospels,
Mary Magdalene goes to Jesus' tomb on Sunday
morning and is surprised to find it empty. Jesus, she learns, has
risen from the dead. Despite Jesus' teaching, the disciples had not
understood that
Jesus would rise again. After the discovery of the
empty tomb,
Jesus makes a series of appearances to the disciples.

* In Mark,
Salome and
Mary, mother of James are with Mary Magdalene
(Mark 16:1). A young man in a white robe (an angel) tells them that
Jesus will meet his disciples in Galilee, as he had told them
(referring to Mark 14:28).
* In Matthew, there's an earthquake when the women discover the
tomb, and an angel of the Lord descends from heaven, terrifying the
guards.
Jesus appears to the eleven remaining disciples in Galilee
and commissions them to baptize all nations in the name of the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
* In Luke, Mary and the other women meet two angels, and the eleven
disciples do not believe their story (Luke 25:1–12).
Jesus appears
that same day to his disciples in
Jerusalem (Luke 24:13–43).
Although he appears and vanishes mysteriously, he also eats and lets
them touch him to prove that he is not a spirit. He repeats his
command to bring his teaching to all nations (Luke 24:51).
* In John, Mary is alone at first, but Peter and the beloved
disciple come and see the tomb as well.
Jesus then appears to Mary at
the empty tomb. He later appears to the disciples, breathes on them,
and gives them the power to forgive and retain sins. In a second
visit, he proves to a doubting disciple ("
Doubting Thomas ") that he
is flesh and blood. The catch of 153 fish is a miracle by the Sea of
Galilee , after which
Jesus encourages Peter to serve his followers.

Jesus' Ascension into Heaven is described in Luke 24:50–53, Acts
1:1–11 and mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:16. In the Acts of the Apostles
, forty days after the Resurrection, as the disciples look on, "he was
lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight". 1 Peter 3:22
states that
Jesus has "gone into heaven and is at the right hand of
God".

The
Acts of the Apostles describes several appearances of
Jesus in
visions after his Ascension. Acts 7:55 describes a vision experienced
by Stephen just before his death. On the road to
Damascus , the
Apostle Paul is converted to
Christianity after seeing a blinding
light and hearing a voice saying, "I am Jesus, whom you are
persecuting" (Acts 9:5). In Acts 9:10–18,
Jesus instructs Ananias
of
Damascus to heal Paul. It is the last conversation with Jesus
reported in the
Bible until the
Book of
Revelation , in which John of
Patmos receives a revelation from
Jesus concerning the last days,
when
Jesus is predicted to return victoriously (Revelation
19:11–21). In the closing lines of the New Testament,
Jesus promises
that he is coming soon (
Revelation 22:12–21).

Prior to the Enlightenment , the gospels were usually regarded as
accurate historical accounts, but since then scholars have emerged who
question the reliability of the gospels and draw a distinction between
the
Jesus described in the gospels and the
Jesus of history. Since
the 18th century, three separate scholarly quests for the historical
Jesus have taken place, each with distinct characteristics and based
on different research criteria, which were often developed during the
quest that applied them. While there is widespread scholarly
agreement on the existence of Jesus, and a basic consensus on the
general outline of his life, the portraits of
Jesus constructed in
the quests have often differed from each other, and from the image
portrayed in the gospel accounts.

Approaches to the historical reconstruction of the life of
Jesus have
varied from the "maximalist" approaches of the 19th century, in which
the gospel accounts were accepted as reliable evidence wherever it is
possible, to the "minimalist" approaches of the early 20th century,
where hardly anything about
Jesus was accepted as historical. In the
1950s, as the second quest for the historical
Jesus gathered pace, the
minimalist approaches faded away, and in the 21st century, minimalists
such as Price are a very small minority. Although a belief in the
inerrancy of the gospels cannot be supported historically, many
scholars since the 1980s have held that, beyond the few facts
considered to be historically certain, certain other elements of
Jesus' life are "historically probable". Modern scholarly research
on the historical
Jesus thus focuses on identifying the most probable
elements.

In AD 6,
Judea , Idumea , and
Samaria were transformed from a client
kingdom of the
Roman Empire into an imperial province, also called
Judea . A Roman prefect , rather than a client king, ruled the land.
The prefect ruled from
Caesarea Maritima , leaving
Jerusalem to be run
by the High Priest of Israel . As an exception, the prefect came to
Jerusalem during religious festivals, when religious and patriotic
enthusiasm sometimes inspired unrest or uprisings.
Gentile lands
surrounded the Jewish territories of
Judea and
Galilee , but Roman law
and practice allowed
Jews to remain separate legally and culturally.
Galilee was evidently prosperous, and poverty was limited enough that
it did not threaten the social order.

Jewish religion was unusual in that
Jews acknowledged only one God,
they considered themselves chosen by him, and they wanted Gentiles to
accept their
God as the only God.
Jews based their faith and religious
practice on the
Torah , five books said to have been given by
God to
Moses . The three prominent religious parties were the
Pharisees , the
Essenes , and the
Sadducees . Together these parties represented only
a small fraction of the population. Most
Jews looked forward to a time
that
God would deliver them from their pagan rulers, possibly through
war against the Romans.

SOURCES

Main article: Sources for the historicity of
Jesus See also:
Josephus on
Jesus and
Tacitus on
Jesus A 1640 edition of
the works of Josephus, a 1st century Roman-Jewish historian who
referred to
Jesus

New Testament scholars face a formidable challenge when they analyze
the canonical Gospels. The
Gospels are not biographies in the modern
sense, and the authors explain Jesus' theological significance and
recount his public ministry while omitting many details of his life.
The reports of supernatural events associated with Jesus' death and
resurrection make the challenge even more difficult. Scholars regard
the gospels as compromised sources of information because the writers
were trying to glorify Jesus. Even so, the sources for Jesus' life
are better than sources scholars have for the life of Alexander the
Great . Scholars use a number of criteria, such as the criterion of
independent attestation , the criterion of coherence , and the
criterion of discontinuity to judge the historicity of events. The
historicity of an event also depends on the reliability of the source;
indeed, the gospels are not independent nor consistent records of
Jesus' life. Mark, which is most likely the earliest written gospel,
has been considered for many decades the most historically accurate.
John, the latest written gospel, differs considerably from the
Synoptic Gospels, and thus is generally considered less reliable,
although more and more scholars now also recognize that it may contain
a core of older material as historically valuable as the Synoptic
tradition or even more so.

The non-canonical
Gospel of Thomas might be an independent witness to
many of Jesus' parables and aphorisms. For example, Thomas confirms
that
Jesus blessed the poor and that this saying circulated
independently before being combined with similar sayings in the Q
source . Other select non-canonical
Christian texts may also have
value for historical
Jesus research.

Early non-
Christian sources that attest to the historical existence
of
Jesus include the works of the historians
Josephus and
Tacitus .
Josephus scholar
Louis H. Feldman has stated that "few have doubted
the genuineness" of Josephus' reference to
Jesus in book 20 of the
_Antiquities of the
Jews _, and it is disputed only by a small number
of scholars.
Tacitus referred to Christ and his execution by Pilate
in book 15 of his work _Annals _. Scholars generally consider
Tacitus's reference to the execution of
Jesus to be both authentic and
of historical value as an independent Roman source.

Non-
Christian sources are valuable in two ways. First, they show that
even neutral or hostile parties never evince any doubt that Jesus
actually existed. Second, they present a rough picture of
Jesus that
is compatible with that found in the
Christian sources: that
Jesus was
a teacher, had a reputation as a miracle worker, had a brother James,
and died a violent death.

Archeology helps scholars better understand Jesus' social world.
Recent archeological work, for example, indicates that
Capernaum , a
city important in Jesus' ministry, was poor and small, without even a
forum or an agora . This archaeological discovery resonates well
with the scholarly view that
Jesus advocated reciprocal sharing among
the destitute in that area of Galilee.

The gospels offer several clues concerning the year of Jesus' birth.
Matthew 2:1 associates the birth of
Jesus with the reign of Herod the
Great , who died around 4 BC, and Luke 1:5 mentions that Herod was on
the throne shortly before the birth of Jesus, although this gospel
also associates the birth with the
Census of Quirinius which took
place ten years later. Luke 3:23 states that
Jesus was "about thirty
years old" at the start of his ministry , which according to Acts
10:37–38 was preceded by John the Baptist's ministry, itself
recorded in Luke 3:1–2 to have begun in the 15th year of
Tiberius '
reign (28 or 29 AD). By collating the gospel accounts with
historical data and using various other methods, most scholars arrive
at a date of birth between 6 and 4 BC for Jesus, but some propose
estimates that lie in a wider range.

The years of Jesus' ministry have been estimated using several
different approaches. One of these applies the reference in Luke
3:1–2, Acts 10:37–38 and the dates of Tiberius' reign, which are
well known, to give a date of around 28–29 AD for the start of
Jesus' ministry. Another approach uses the statement about the temple
in John 2:13–20, which asserts that the temple in
Jerusalem was in
its 46th year of construction at the start of Jesus' ministry,
together with Josephus\' statement that the temple's reconstruction
was started by
Herod the Great in the 18th year of his reign, to
estimate a date around 27–29 AD. A further method uses the date of
the death of
John the Baptist and the marriage of
Herod Antipas to
Herodias , based on the writings of Josephus, and correlates it with
Matthew 14:4 and Mark 6:18. Given that most scholars date the
marriage of Herod and
Herodias as AD 28–35, this yields a date about
28–29 AD.

A number of approaches have been used to estimate the year of the
crucifixion of Jesus. Most scholars agree that he died in 30 or 33 AD.
The gospels state that the event occurred during the prefecture of
Pilate, the
Roman governor of
Judea from 26 to 36 AD. The date for
the conversion of Paul (estimated to be 33–36 AD) acts as an upper
bound for the date of Crucifixion. The dates for Paul's conversion and
ministry can be determined by analyzing the
Pauline epistles and the
Acts of the Apostles . Astronomers have tried to estimate the
precise date of the Crucifixion by analyzing lunar motion and
calculating historic dates of
Passover , a festival based on the
lunisolar
Hebrew calendar . The most widely accepted dates derived
from this method are April 7, 30 AD, and April 3, 33 AD (both Julian
).

HISTORICITY OF EVENTS

Main article: Historicity of
Jesus See also: Cultural and historical
background of
Jesus , History of the
Jews in the
Roman Empire , Higher
criticism ,
Textual criticism , and Historical reliability of the
Gospels Roman senator and historian
Tacitus wrote of the
crucifixion of Christ (Jesus) in the Annals, a history of the Roman
Empire during the 1st century.

Scholars have reached a limited consensus on the basics of Jesus'
life.

Jesus grew up in
Nazareth in
Galilee .
E. P. Sanders and Géza
Vermes consider Joseph to be Jesus' father.
Jesus also had brothers
and sisters. It is unusual that in Mark 6:3, Jesus' neighbors refer to
Jesus as Mary's son, because sons were identified by their fathers.
This reference has led some scholars to suggest that
Jesus was
illegitimate and that Joseph is a fictional character . Mary 's
identity as a historical figure, however, is certain.

It is common for extraordinary charismatic leaders , such as Jesus,
to come into conflict with their ordinary families. In Mark, Jesus'
family comes to get him, fearing that he is mad (Mark 3:20–34), and
this account is likely historical because early Christians would not
have invented it. After Jesus' death, many members of his family
joined the
Christian movement and enjoyed positions of respect within
it. His brother James served as a leader in Jerusalem.

Géza Vermes says that the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus
arose from theological development rather than from historical events.
Despite the widely held view that the authors of the Synoptic Gospels
drew upon each other (the so-called synoptic problem ,) other scholars
take it as significant that the virgin birth is attested by two
separate gospels, Matthew and Luke.

According to E. P. Sanders, the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke
are the clearest case of invention in the
Gospel narratives of Jesus'
life. Both accounts have
Jesus born in
Bethlehem , in accordance with
Jewish salvation history, and both have him growing up in Nazareth.
But Sanders points that the two
Gospels report completely different
and irreconcilable explanations for how that happened. Luke's account
of a census in which everyone returned to their ancestral cities is
not plausible. Matthew's account is more plausible, but the story
reads as though it was invented to identify
Jesus as like a new Moses
, and the historian
Josephus reports Herod the Great's brutality
without ever mentioning that he massacred little boys .

Sanders says that the genealogies of
Jesus are based not on
historical information but on the authors' desire to show that Jesus
was the universal Jewish savior. In any event, once the doctrine of
the virgin birth of
Jesus became established, that tradition
superseded the earlier tradition that he was descended from David
through Joseph. Luke reports that
Jesus was a blood relation of John
the Baptist , but scholars generally consider this connection to be
invented.

Baptism

Most modern scholars consider Jesus' baptism to be a definite
historical fact, along with his crucifixion. Theologian James D.G.
Dunn states that they "command almost universal assent" and "rank so
high on the 'almost impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical
facts" that they are often the starting points for the study of the
historical Jesus. Scholars adduce the criterion of embarrassment ,
saying that early Christians would not have invented a baptism that
might imply that
Jesus committed sins and wanted to repent .
According to Theissen and Merz,
Jesus was inspired by John the Baptist
and took over from him many elements of his teaching.

Ministry In Galilee

Most scholars hold that
Jesus lived in
Galilee and
Judea and did not
preach or study elsewhere. They agree that
Jesus debated with Jewish
authorities on the subject of God, performed some healings, taught in
parables and gathered followers. According to E. P. Sanders, Jesus
may well have debated other
Jews about how to interpret the Law of
Moses and the
Sabbath , as recorded in the Synoptics. Sanders,
however, concludes that it is not plausible that these disagreements
would have led Jewish authorities to want
Jesus killed, as the
Synoptics report.

As recorded in the Synoptics,
Jesus taught that a coming kingdom was
everyone's proper focus, not anything in this life. He taught about
the Jewish Law, seeking its true meaning, sometimes in opposition to
other traditions. He put love at the center of the Law, and following
that Law was an apocalyptic necessity. His ethical teachings called
for forgiveness, not judging others, loving enemies, and caring for
the poor. Typical of
Jesus were paradoxical or surprising turns of
phrase, such as advising one, when struck on the cheek, to offer the
other cheek to be struck as well (Luke 6:29). Jesus' Jewish critics
considered his ministry to be scandalous because he feasted with
sinners, fraternized with women, and allowed his followers to pluck
grain on the Sabbath.

The
Gospels portray
Jesus teaching in well-defined sessions, such as
Matthew's
Sermon on the Mount or Luke's parallel
Sermon on the Plain .
According to
Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz, these teaching sessions
include authentic teachings of Jesus, but the scenes were invented by
the respective evangelists to frame these teachings, which had
originally been recorded without context.

While Jesus' miracles fit within the social context of antiquity , he
defined them differently. First, he attributed them to the faith of
those healed. Second, he connected them to end times prophecy.

Jesus chose twelve disciples (the "Twelve"), evidently as an
apocalyptic message. All three Synoptics mention the Twelve, although
the names on Luke's list vary from those in Mark and Matthew,
suggesting that Christians were not certain who all the disciples
were. The 12 disciples might have represented the twelve original
tribes of Israel , which would be restored once God's rule was
instituted. The disciples were reportedly meant to be the rulers of
the tribes in the coming Kingdom (Matthew 19:28, Luke 22:30).
According to Bart Ehrman, Jesus' promise that the Twelve would rule is
historical, because the Twelve included
Judas Iscariot . In Ehrman's
view, no Christians would have invented a line from Jesus, promising
rulership to the disciple who betrayed him. In Mark, the disciples
play hardly any role other than a negative one. While others sometimes
respond to
Jesus with complete faith, his disciples are puzzled and
doubtful. They serve as a foil to
Jesus and to other characters. The
failings of the disciples are probably exaggerated in Mark, and the
disciples make a better showing in Matthew and Luke.

Some scholars say that story of the Transfiguration of
Jesus is a
vision of
Jesus after his death, retrospectively incorporated into the
narrative of Jesus' life. The divine voice declaring
Jesus to be
God's son seems to have originally been associated with Jesus'
resurrection (see Romans 1:3 and Acts 13:33). Even if the story is
based on a genuine vision, it has been sufficiently reworked in light
of early
Christian beliefs, making it effectively Mark's invention.

E. P. Sanders says that Jesus' mission was not about repentance ,
although he acknowledges that this opinion is unpopular. He argues
that repentance appears as a strong theme only in Luke, that
repentance was
John the Baptist 's message, and that Jesus' ministry
would not have been scandalous if the sinners he ate with had been
repentant. According to the general opinion,
Jesus taught that God
was generously giving people an opportunity to repent.

Role

Jesus taught that an apocalyptic figure, the "Son of Man ", would
soon come on clouds of glory to gather the elect, or chosen ones (Mark
13:24–27, Matthew 24:29–31, Luke 21:25–28). He referred to
himself as a "son of man " in the colloquial sense of "a person", but
scholars do not know whether he also meant himself when he referred to
the heavenly "Son of Man".
Paul the Apostle and other early Christians
interpreted the "Son of Man" as the risen Jesus.

The title Christ , or
Messiah , indicates that Jesus' followers
believed him to be the anointed heir of King
David , whom some Jews
expected to save Israel. The
Gospels refer to him not only as a
Messiah but in the absolute form as "the Messiah" or, equivalently,
"the Christ". In early Judaism, this absolute form of the title is not
found, but only phrases such as "his Messiah". The tradition is
ambiguous enough to leave room for debate as to whether
Jesus defined
his eschatological role as that of the Messiah. The Jewish messianic
tradition included many different forms, some of them focused on a
Messiah figure and others not. Based on the
Christian tradition, Gerd
Theissen advances the hypothesis that
Jesus saw himself in messianic
terms but did not claim the title "Messiah".
Bart Ehrman argues that
Jesus did consider himself to be the Messiah, albeit in the sense that
he would be the king of the new political order that
God would usher
in, not in the sense that most people today think of the term.

Around AD 30,
Jesus and his followers traveled from
Galilee to
Jerusalem to observe
Passover . While in Jerusalem, he reportedly
undertook three symbolic acts before being arrested and executed as a
threat to the public order.

First,
Jesus caused a disturbance in the
Second Temple , which was
the center of Jewish religious and civil authority. E. P. Sanders
associates it with Jesus' prophecy that the Temple would be totally
demolished.

Second,
Jesus had a last meal with his disciples, which is the origin
of the
Christian sacrament of bread and wine. Jesus' words are
recorded in the Synoptics and in Paul's First
Epistle to the
Corinthians . The differences in the accounts cannot be completely
reconciled, and it is impossible to know what
Jesus intended, but in
general the meal seems to point forward to the coming Kingdom. Jesus
probably expected to be killed, and he may have hoped that
God would
intervene.

The
Gospels say that
Jesus was betrayed to the authorities by a
disciple, and many scholars consider this report to be highly
reliable. He was executed on the orders of
Pontius Pilate , the Roman
prefect of Judaea . Pilate most likely saw Jesus' reference to the
Kingdom of
God as a threat to Roman authority and worked with the
Temple elites to have
Jesus executed. The Sadducean high-priestly
leaders of the Temple more plausibly had
Jesus executed for political
reasons than for his teaching. They may have regarded him as a threat
to stability, especially after he caused a disturbance at the Second
Temple. Other factors, such as Jesus' triumphal entry into
Jerusalem, may have contributed to this decision. Most scholars
consider Jesus' crucifixion to be factual, because early Christians
would not have invented the painful death of their leader.

After Crucifixion

_ The Resurrection of Christ from a 16th century copy of La
Passion de Nostre Seigneur_

After Jesus' death, his followers said he rose from the dead,
although exact details of their experiences are unclear. Some of those
who claimed to have witnessed Jesus' resurrection later died for their
belief, which indicates that their beliefs were likely genuine.
According to
E. P. Sanders , the
Gospel reports contradict each other,
which, according to him, suggests competition among those claiming to
have seen him first rather than deliberate fraud. On the other hand,
L. Michael White suggests that inconsistencies in the
Gospels reflect
differences in the agendas of their unknown authors. The followers of
Jesus formed a community to wait for his return and the founding of
his kingdom.

Modern research on the historical
Jesus has not led to a unified
picture of the historical figure, partly because of the variety of
academic traditions represented by the scholars. Given the scarcity
of historical sources, it is generally difficult for any scholar to
construct a portrait of
Jesus that can be considered historically
valid beyond the basic elements of his life. The portraits of Jesus
constructed in these quests often differ from each other, and from the
image portrayed in the gospels.

Contemporary scholarship, representing the "third quest ", places
Jesus firmly in the Jewish tradition. Leading scholars in the "third
quest" include
E. P. Sanders ,
Géza Vermes ,
Gerd Theissen ,
Christoph Burchard, and
John Dominic Crossan .
Jesus is seen as the
founder of, in the words of E. P. Sanders, a '"renewal movement within
Judaism." This scholarship suggests a continuity between Jesus' life
as a wandering charismatic and the same lifestyle carried forward by
followers after his death. The main criterion used to discern
historical details in the "third quest" is the criterion of
plausibility, relative to Jesus' Jewish context and to his influence
on Christianity. The main disagreement in contemporary research is
whether
Jesus was apocalyptic . Most scholars conclude that he was an
apocalyptic preacher, like
John the Baptist and
Paul the Apostle . In
contrast, certain prominent North American scholars, such as Burton
Mack and John Dominic Crossan, advocate for a non-eschatological
Jesus, one who is more of a Cynic sage than an apocalyptic preacher.
In addition to portraying
Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet, a
charismatic healer or a cynic philosopher , some scholars portray him
as the true
Messiah or an egalitarian prophet of social change .
However, the attributes described in the portraits sometimes overlap,
and scholars who differ on some attributes sometimes agree on others.

Since the 18th century, scholars have occasionally put forth that
Jesus was a political national messiah, but the evidence for this
portrait is negligible. Likewise, the proposal that
Jesus was a Zealot
does not fit with the earliest strata of the Synoptic tradition.

LANGUAGE, ETHNICITY, AND APPEARANCE

Further information: Language of
Jesus and Race and appearance of
Jesus The representation of the ethnicity of
Jesus has been
influenced by cultural settings.

Jesus grew up in
Galilee and much of his ministry took place there.
The languages spoken in
Galilee and
Judea during the 1st century AD
include
Jewish Palestinian Aramaic , Hebrew , and Greek , with Aramaic
being predominant. There is substantial consensus that
Jesus gave
most of his teachings in Aramaic.

Modern scholars agree that
Jesus was a
Jew of 1st century Palestine .
_
Ioudaios _ in
New Testament Greek is a term which in the
contemporary context may refer to religion (
Second TempleJudaism ),
ethnicity (of Judea), or both. In a review of the state of modern
scholarship,
Amy-Jill Levine writes that the entire question of
ethnicity is "fraught with difficulty", and that "beyond recognizing
that '
Jesus was Jewish', rarely does the scholarship address what
being 'Jewish' means".

The
New Testament gives no description of the physical appearance of
Jesus before his death—it is generally indifferent to racial
appearances and does not refer to the features of the people it
mentions.
Jesus probably looked like a typical
Jew of his time and
according to some scholars was likely to have had a sinewy appearance
due to his ascetic and itinerant lifestyle .

The
Christ myth theory is the hypothesis that
Jesus of
Nazareth never
existed; or if he did, that he had virtually nothing to do with the
founding of
Christianity and the accounts in the gospels . Stories of
Jesus' birth, along with other key events, have so many mythic
elements that some scholars have suggested that
Jesus himself was a
myth .
Bruno Bauer (1809–1882) taught that the first
Gospel was a
work of literature that produced history rather than described it.
According to
Albert Kalthoff (1850–1906) a social movement produced
Jesus when it encountered Jewish messianic expectations. Arthur Drews
(1865–1935) saw
Jesus as the concrete form of a myth that predated
Christianity. Despite arguments put forward by authors who have
questioned the existence of a historical
Jesus , there remains a
strong consensus in historical-critical biblical scholarship that a
historical
Jesus did live in that area and in that time period.

Apart from his own disciples and followers, the
Jews of Jesus' day
generally rejected him as the Messiah, as do the great majority of
Jews today.
Christian theologians, ecumenical councils , reformers and
others have written extensively about
Jesus over the centuries.
Christian sects and schisms have often been defined or characterized
by their descriptions of Jesus. Meanwhile, Manichaeans , Gnostics ,
Muslims, Baha'is, and others have found prominent places for
Jesus in
their religions.
Jesus has also had detractors, both past and
present.

Jesus is the central figure of Christianity. Although Christian
views of
Jesus vary, it is possible to summarize the key beliefs
shared among major denominations , as stated in their catechetical or
confessional texts.
Christian views of
Jesus are derived from
various sources, including the canonical gospels and New Testament
letters such as the
Pauline epistles and the
Johannine writings .
These documents outline the key beliefs held by Christians about
Jesus, including his divinity, humanity, and earthly life, and that he
is the Christ and the Son of
God . Despite their many shared beliefs,
not all
Christian denominations agree on all doctrines, and both major
and minor differences on teachings and beliefs have persisted
throughout
Christianity for centuries.

The
New Testament states that the resurrection of
Jesus is the
foundation of the
Christian faith (1 Corinthians 15:12–20).
Christians believe that through his sacrificial death and
resurrection, humans can be reconciled with
God and are thereby
offered salvation and the promise of eternal life . Recalling the
words of
John the Baptist on the day after Jesus' baptism, these
doctrines sometimes refer to
Jesus as the Lamb of God, who was
crucified to fulfill his role as the servant of God.
Jesus is thus
seen as the new and last
Adam , whose obedience contrasts with Adam\'s
disobedience . Christians view
Jesus as a role model, whose
God-focused life believers are encouraged to imitate.

Most Christians believe that
Jesus was both human and the Son of God.
While there has been theological debate over his nature, Some early
Christians viewed
Jesus as subordinate to the Father, and others
considered him an aspect of the Father rather than a separate person.
The Church resolved the issues in ancient councils, which established
the Holy Trinity, with
Jesus both fully human and fully God.
Trinitarian Christians generally believe that
Jesus is the Logos,
God's incarnation and
God the Son , both fully divine and fully human.
However, the doctrine of the
Trinity is not universally accepted among
Christians. With the Protestant Reformation, Christians such as
Michael Servetus and the Socinians started questioning the ancient
creeds that had established Jesus' two natures. Nontrinitarian
Christian groups include The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints , Unitarians and Jehovah\'s Witnesses .

Christians revere not only
Jesus himself, but also his name .
Devotions to the Holy Name of
Jesus go back to the earliest days of
Christianity. These devotions and feasts exist in both Eastern and
Western
Christianity .

Judaism rejects the idea of
Jesus being God, or a mediator to God,
or part of a Trinity. It holds that
Jesus is not the
Messiah ,
arguing that he neither fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in the
Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah. Jews
argue that
Jesus did not fulfill prophesies to build the Third Temple
(
Ezekiel 37:26–28), gather
Jews back to Israel (Isaiah 43:5–6),
bring world peace (Isaiah 2:4), and unite humanity under the
God of
Israel (Zechariah 14:9). And, furthermore, by Jewish tradition, death
on a cross (or "tree") signifies rejection by
God (Deuteronomy 21:23).

Furthermore, according to Jewish tradition, there were no prophets
after
Malachi , who delivered his prophesies in the 5th century BC.
Although currently disputed,
David Flusser offers the Pharisee,
Joshua B. Perahyah, as a possible rabbi of Jesus, but likens his
social outlook to that of the
Essenes and his prophetic stance to that
of John the Baptist.

Judaic criticism of
Jesus is long-standing. The Talmud, written and
compiled from the 3rd to the 5th century AD, includes stories that
since medieval times have been considered to be defamatory accounts of
Jesus. In one such story, _Yeshu HaNozri_ ("
Jesus the Christian"), a
lewd apostate, is executed by the Jewish high court for spreading
idolatry and practicing magic. The majority of contemporary scholars
consider that this material provides no information on the historical
Jesus. The _Mishneh
Torah _, a late 12th century work of Jewish law
written by
Moses Maimonides , states that
Jesus is a "stumbling block"
who makes "the majority of the world to err and serve a god other than
the Lord".

A major figure in Islam,
Jesus (commonly transliterated as
_ʾĪsā_) is considered to be a messenger of
God (_
Allah _) and the
Messiah (_al-Masih _) who was sent to guide the Children of Israel
(_Bani Isra'il_) with a new scripture, the
Gospel (referred to in
Islam as _Injil _). Muslims regard the gospels of the New Testament
as inauthentic, and believe that Jesus' original message was lost or
altered and that
Muhammad came later to restore it. Belief in Jesus
(and all other messengers of
God ) is a requirement for being a Muslim
. The
Quran mentions
Jesus by name 25 times—more often than
Muhammad —and emphasizes that
Jesus was a mortal human who, like
all other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God's message.
While the Qur'an acknowledges the Virgin birth of Jesus, he is
considered to be neither the incarnation nor the son of
God . Islamic
texts emphasize a strict notion of monotheism (_tawhid _) and forbid
the association of partners with God, which would be idolatry . Like
all prophets in
Islam ,
Jesus is considered a Muslim.

The
Quran describes the annunciation to Mary (_Maryam _) by an angel
that she is to give birth to
Jesus while remaining a virgin. It calls
the virgin birth a miracle that occurred by the will of God. The
Quran (21:91 and 66:12) states that
God breathed his spirit into Mary
while she was chaste.
Jesus is called the "Spirit of God" because he
was born through the action of the Spirit, but that belief does not
imply his pre-existence .

To aid in his ministry to the Jewish people,
Jesus was given the
ability to perform miracles , by permission of
God rather than by his
own power. Through his ministry,
Jesus is seen as a precursor to
Muhammad. According to the Quran,
Jesus was not crucified but was
merely made to appear that way to unbelievers by Allah, who
physically raised
Jesus into the heavens. To Muslims, it is the
ascension rather than the crucifixion that constitutes a major event
in the life of Jesus. Most Muslims believe that
Jesus will return to
earth at the end of time and defeat the
Antichrist (_ad-Dajjal _) by
killing him in Lud.

The
AhmadiyyaMuslim Community has several distinct teachings about
Jesus. Ahmadis believe that he was a mortal man who survived his
crucifixion and died a natural death at the age of 120 in
Kashmir ,
India and is buried at
Roza Bal .

BAHá\'í

Bahá\'í teachings consider
Jesus to be a manifestation of
God , a
Bahá'í concept for prophets —intermediaries between
God and
humanity, serving as messengers and reflecting God's qualities and
attributes. The Bahá'í concept emphasizes the simultaneous
qualities of humanity and divinity; thus, it is similar to the
Christian concept of incarnation. Bahá'í thought accepts
Jesus as
the Son of God. In Bahá'í thought,
Jesus was a perfect incarnation
of God's attributes, but Bahá'í teachings reject the idea that
"ineffable essence" of the Divinity was contained within a single
human body because of their beliefs regarding "omnipresence and
transcendence of the essence of God".

Bahá\'u\'lláh , the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, wrote that since
each manifestation of
God has the same divine attributes, they can be
seen as the spiritual "return" of all previous manifestations of God,
and the appearance of each new manifestation of
God inaugurates a
religion that supersedes the former ones, a concept known as
progressive revelation . Bahá'ís believe that God's plan unfolds
gradually through this process as mankind matures, and that some of
the manifestations arrive in specific fulfillment of the missions of
previous ones. Thus, Bahá'ís believe that
Bahá'u'lláh is the
promised return of Christ. Bahá'í teachings confirm many, but not
all, aspects of
Jesus as portrayed in the gospels. Bahá'ís believe
in the virgin birth and in the Crucifixion, but see the Resurrection
and the miracles of
Jesus as symbolic.

In
ChristianGnosticism (now a largely extinct religious movement),
Jesus was sent from the divine realm and provided the secret knowledge
(gnosis ) necessary for salvation. Most Gnostics believed that Jesus
was a human who became possessed by the spirit of "the Christ" at his
baptism. This spirit left Jesus' body during the crucifixion, but was
rejoined to him when he was raised from the dead. Some Gnostics,
however, were docetics , believed that
Jesus did not have a physical
body, but only appeared to possess one.
Manichaeism , a Gnostic sect,
accepted
Jesus as a prophet, in addition to revering Gautama Buddha
and
Zoroaster .

Some Hindus consider
Jesus to be an avatar or a sadhu . Paramahansa
Yogananda , an Indian guru , taught that
Jesus was the reincarnation
of
Elisha and a student of
John the Baptist , the reincarnation of
Elijah . Some Buddhists , including Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai
Lama , regard
Jesus as a bodhisattva who dedicated his life to the
welfare of people. The
New Age movement entertains a wide variety of
views on Jesus. Theosophists , from whom many
New Age teachings
originated, refer to
Jesus as the Master
Jesus and believe that
Christ, after various incarnations , occupied the body of Jesus.
Scientologists recognize
Jesus (along with other religious figures
such as Zoroaster,
Muhammad , and Buddha) as part of their "religious
heritage". Atheists reject Jesus' divinity, but not all hold a
negative estimation of him;
Richard Dawkins , for instance, refers to
Jesus as "a great moral teacher", while stating in his book _The God
Delusion _ that
Jesus is praiseworthy because he did not derive his
ethics from biblical scripture.

ARTISTIC DEPICTIONS

Main article: Depiction of
JesusJesus healing a paralytic in
one of the first known images of
Jesus from Dura Europos in the 2nd
century

Some of the earliest depictions of
Jesus at the Dura-Europos church
are firmly dated to before 256. Thereafter, despite the lack of
biblical references or historical records, a wide range of depictions
of
Jesus appeared during the last two millennia, often influenced by
cultural settings, political circumstances and theological contexts.
As in other Early
Christian art , the earliest depictions date to the
late 2nd or early 3rd century, and surviving images are found
especially in the
Catacombs of Rome .

The depiction of Christ in pictorial form was highly controversial in
the early church. From the 5th century onward, flat painted icons
became popular in the Eastern Church. The
Byzantine Iconoclasm acted
as a barrier to developments in the East, but by the ninth century,
art was permitted again. The
Protestant Reformation brought renewed
resistance to imagery , but total prohibition was atypical, and
Protestant objections to images have tended to reduce since the 16th
century. Although large images are generally avoided, few Protestants
now object to book illustrations depicting Jesus. The use of
depictions of
Jesus is advocated by the leaders of denominations such
as
Anglicans and Catholics and is a key element of the Eastern
Orthodox tradition.

The Transfiguration was a major theme in Eastern
Christian art, and
every
Eastern Orthodox monk who had trained in icon painting had to
prove his craft by painting an icon depicting it. Icons receive the
external marks of veneration, such as kisses and prostration, and they
are thought to be powerful channels of divine grace. The Renaissance
brought forth a number of artists who focused on depictions of Jesus;
Fra Angelico and others followed
Giotto in the systematic development
of uncluttered images.

Before the Protestant Reformation, the crucifix was common in Western
Christianity. It is a model of the cross with
Jesus crucified on it.
The crucifix became the central ornament of the altar in the 13th
century, a use that has been nearly universal in Roman Catholic
churches until recent times.

Jesus appears as an infant in a manger (feed trough) in Christmas
creches, which depict the
Nativity scene . He is typically joined by
Mary, Joseph, animals, shepherds, angels, and the
Magi . Francis of
Assisi (1181/82–1226) is credited with popularizing the creche,
although he probably did not initiate it. The creche reached its
height of popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries in southern
Europe.

The total destruction that ensued with the siege of
Jerusalem by the
Romans in AD 70 made the survival of items from 1st century
Judea very
rare and almost no direct records survive about the history of Judaism
from the last part of the 1st century through the 2nd century.
Margaret M. Mitchell writes that although
Eusebius reports
(_Ecclesiastical History _ III 5.3) that the early Christians left
Jerusalem for Pella just before
Jerusalem was subjected to the final
lock down, we must accept that no first hand
Christian items from the
early
Jerusalem Church have reached us. However, throughout the
history of
Christianity a number of relics attributed to
Jesus have
been claimed, although doubt has been cast on them. The 16th century
Catholic theologian
Erasmus wrote sarcastically about the
proliferation of relics and the number of buildings that could have
been constructed from the wood claimed to be from the cross used in
the Crucifixion . Similarly, while experts debate whether
Jesus was
crucified with three nails or with four, at least thirty holy nails
continue to be venerated as relics across Europe.

Some relics, such as purported remnants of the
Crown of Thorns ,
receive only a modest number of pilgrims, while the Shroud of Turin
(which is associated with an approved
Catholic devotion to the Holy
Face of
Jesus ), has received millions, including popes John Paul II
and Benedict XVI .

* ^ Meier writes that Jesus' birth year is c. 7 or 6 BC. Rahner
states that the consensus among scholars is c. 4 BC. Sanders also
favors c. 4 BC and refers to the general consensus. Finegan uses the
study of early
Christian traditions to support c. 3 or 2 BC.
* ^ Most scholars estimate AD 30 or 33 as the year of Jesus'
crucifixion.
* ^ James Dunn writes that the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus
"command almost universal assent" and "rank so high on the 'almost
impossible to doubt or deny' scale of historical facts" that they are
often the starting points for the study of the historical Jesus. Bart
Ehrman states that the crucifixion of
Jesus on the orders of Pontius
Pilate is the most certain element about him. John Dominic Crossan
and Richard G. Watts state that the crucifixion of
Jesus is as certain
as any historical fact can be. Paul R. Eddy and Gregory A. Boyd say
that non-
Christian confirmation of the crucifixion of
Jesus is now
"firmly established".
* ^ Traditionally, Christians believe that Mary conceived her son
miraculously by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Muslims believe that
she conceived her son miraculously by the command of God. Joseph was
from these perspectives the acting adoptive father.
* ^ The
New Testament records a variety of names and titles
accorded to
Jesus .
* ^ _A_ _B_ In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship,
Bart Ehrman wrote, "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent
scholar of antiquity,
Christian or non-Christian, agrees". Richard A.
Burridge states: "There are those who argue that
Jesus is a figment of
the Church's imagination, that there never was a
Jesus at all. I have
to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says
that any more".
Robert M. Price does not believe that
Jesus existed,
but agrees that this perspective runs against the views of the
majority of scholars. James D.G. Dunn calls the theories of Jesus'
non-existence "a thoroughly dead thesis". Michael Grant (a classicist
) wrote in 1977, "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to
postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and
they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very
abundant, evidence to the contrary".
Robert E. Van Voorst states that
biblical scholars and classical historians regard theories of
non-existence of
Jesus as effectively refuted.
* ^ This article uses quotes from the New Revised Standard Version
of the Bible.
* ^ For example,
John P. Meier states that Jesus' birth year is
_c._ 7/6 BC, while Finegan favors _c._ 3/2 BC.
* ^ In the New Testament,
Jesus is described as Jewish / Judean
(_
Ioudaios _ as written in Koine Greek) on three occasions: by the
Magi in
Matthew 2 , who referred to
Jesus as "King of the Jews"
(_basileus ton ioudaion_); by both the
Samaritan woman at the well and
by
Jesus himself in
John 4 ; and (in all four gospels) during the
Passion, by the Romans, who also used the phrase "King of the Jews".
* ^ Following the
Apostolic Age , there was fierce and often
politicized debate in the early church on many interrelated issues.
Christology was a major focus of these debates, and was addressed at
every one of the first seven ecumenical councils .
* ^ Flavius
Josephus writing (about 5 years later, c. AD 75) in
_
The Jewish War _ (
Book VII 1.1) stated that
Jerusalem had been
flattened to the point that "there was left nothing to make those that
came thither believe it had ever been inhabited." And once what was
left of the ruins of
Jerusalem had been turned into the Roman
settlement of
Aelia Capitolina , no
Jews were allowed to set foot in
it.
* ^ Polarized conclusions regarding the
Shroud of Turin remain.
According to former _Nature _ editor
Philip Ball , "it's fair to say
that, despite the seemingly definitive tests in 1988, the status of
the
Shroud of Turin is murkier than ever. Not least, the nature of the
image and how it was fixed on the cloth remain deeply puzzling".